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The Winter Garden

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The Winter Garden

By: Jane Thynne
Narrated by: Julie Teal
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Berlin in 1937 radiates glamour and ambition. Anna Hansen, a bride-to-be, is at one of Hitler's notorious Nazi Bride Schools. When she is brutally murdered Clara Vine, an undercover British Intelligence agent and Anna’s friend, is disturbed by news of her death. Clara must work to find the truth and send it back to London. It is a dangerous path she treads, and it will take everything she has to survive…©2014 Thynker Ltd (P)2014 W.F.Howes Ltd Historical Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction
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I have read several fictional books set in Germany during the war, and in particular writing about the lives of the British intelligence living in Berlin at the time. It' is a period of history I find fascinating. Whilst I found this to be an interesting listen initially, it became rather dull and drawn out. I think it could have been written in half the time and achieved a better end result. I listened to it all but it did become rather a challenge towards the end.

Rather drawn out..

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It was fascinating learning about the lead up to the war. The reference to real people and the wrapping of the fiction around the facts added a great dimension to the story. Unfortunately it blurred the suspense. Could do with a bit more about the characters, the murder and a little less description.

Enjoyable but a bit drawn out

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This book started with a prologue describing the murder at a Nazi bride school. I don't know if these really existed but I found it fascinating. The story then switches to half British, half German spy Clara. She is well connected and gets invited to parties with the Nazi elite. Sadly the two strands of the story (set in the same time period) just don't come together well and the bride school is hardly mentioned for hours of narration.I found the story advanced very slowly. I have 4 hours out of 14 left and nothing has happened yet. Part of the problem is the author's habit of including an all seeing narrator that fills in historical detail at every opportunity. For example, Clara walks down the street past Nazi flags, and there's an aside to tell you it was Nazi policy; she meets Ribbentrop at a party and there's an aside to tell you his background; or they discuss Ernst Rohm and the aside tells you he was homosexual and what this means in Nazi Germany. All this breaks up the flow of the story and means it's hard to get a sense of atmosphere. It's great if you know nothing about the history of the period but it is not the well paced, exciting thriller I was expecting.The narrator does an average job although her attempt at an American accent is a bit iffy.

A history lesson instead of a novel

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I read book one of the trilogy initially Black Roses and found its historical attention to detail was excellent. The author really recreates the time and the historical aspects to a high standard. I thought the narrator was good and this aided the story. I found the character of Clara so dull she is possibly sleep inducing. She seems to go around everywhere contribute nothing to the discussions going on as she is 'listening' so that she can relay information back to her 'spy master' I don't understand why she is being invited to these parties as with her not talking and interacting it is difficult to understand her value or contribution.
If you are looking for a book with characters who develop during the book then I would suggest you reconsider this one. However if you want serious attention to detail surrounding all characters then this book may not be for you

Great attention to detail throughout

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I thoroughly enjoyed this. I found the different perspective of Berlin interesting and the characters believable.

Enjoyable

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